Starting IVF/ICSI this month - anyone want to join the journey?

[Rumplestrumpet]

After over 2.5 years TTC, we're FINALLY about to start our fertility treatment this month (ICSI). My nurse and husband forbade me from chats and forums, but after following MN threads over recent years I think it would be a great help to share the experience with those going through the same thing.

Anyone else want to share the joys/terrors of belly injections, hormonal madness and a series of medical professionals poking around your nether regions?! And, of course, hopefully a BFP at the end of it all

That's fabulous tails congratulations

Ahhh that's brilliant news! Massive congratulations :) hopefully the first of many on this thread. Take care of yourself xxx

Truly fabulous news Tail !! I'm so so happy for you!

AF still at bay, and I've resisted the urge to poas (having read it can provide both false negative and false positive results, it just seems like heartache). I'm 95% sure it didn't work, and we'll be looking to our little frostie for another go, but still hanging onto that tiny ray of hope until Saturday.

Well done Tail that's wonderful news, and you even have 4 in the freezer for siblings, what a great result!
Good luck rumples. Stay positive, my fingers are crossed the chocolate won't be necessary.

rumples try and stay positive. although I guess your just protecting yourself for the what if. fx that frozen attempt will be a sibling in a couple of years!

Rumple; I truly hope your instinct is wrong and it has worked for you! Only one more day than you'll know. What's making you so sure it's failed?

Thanks for the encouraging words, it really made me smile I think I'm just concerned because there are absolutely no signs of pregnancy, plus (and this may sound strange) my uterus feels "heavy" like when I'm about to get my period.
I keep changing my mind about poas, decide I'm absolutely gonna do it, then chicken out. DH encouraged me to wait until we get a definitive answer, and if he were here then I probably would have gone for the blood test yesterday (12 days post-5dt). But I didn't want to sit at home alone with the results, so will wait until tomorrow. I'm mostly resigned to the fact that it hasn't worked, but know I'll still be gutted when I get the result for certain. But knowing we still have a frostie does make it a little easier.

How is everyone else feeling today? Nutty how are your embryos doing? Are you going to do transfer today or wait until 5 day? I wonder how Moo got on, she's due to test around now too.... and any news from Leopard ?

Tail - AMAZING. You must be on cloud 9. Enjoy this time!!!

Rumple. I really feel for you. Its agonising, but for what it's worth I think you are doing the right thing and holding out to the actual recommended test date. It's recommended for a reason and I think it actually protects us emotionally. Be positive, but if it is a BFN you only want to go through that once if you see what I mean. Testing early and having a bfn doesn't help you prepare at all for anything, because your brain will still hold on to the 'what if'. Be strong. You are nearly there. Don't worry about not having symptoms and a heavy feeling…remember that your body has been through a lot and you can't really trust it at the moment. Got everything crossed for you.

Hello everyone else. x

Ahhh, congratulations Tail you must be over the moon, and it gives hope to the rest of us

Thanks Allchat , your words are incredibly comforting. I think part of the challenge in this whole process is starting to feeling your judgement is askew, and not knowing what the hell is going on with your body what with that awful white stuff oozing out of you Of course I know I'm very lucky to be in the priviledged position of having three fully-funded rounds on offer, I know it would be soooooooo much harder if this was the end of the line for us.

Are you feeling better about your BFN? I can't remember if you have any frosties, don't think you said what your next steps would be. I hope you're getting the best support from your clinic and DH.

Hi all,
Just had my transfer done. Had two put back. One was only a four cell but the other was an 8. I never thought I'd get this far and now I'm entering my very first 2ww in four years of trying!
Fingers crossed for tomorrow rumples

Hi guys, just a couple of questions if you don't mind....
Did you or will you have a blood test to test for pregnancy? Or are you left to urine test at home and that's it? My
Clinic hasn't mentioned blood test at all, and wondered what was normal?

Also, I've just recieved a bill for £1250 for freezing our eggs for 5 years! I'm sure I'd been told freezing was included in our £6000 icsi package!!! But apparently not. Again wondered what you guys have experienced/whats normal? We are skint! Every last penny went on this cycle. We don't have £1250! But can't let them kill our embryos in case this doesn't work or I miscarry. I feel like they've got us over a barrel, but goodness knows how we'll find the money!
I'm actually really angry with them. I'm upset, tearful and stressed at the thought of them 'disposing' of our embryos. We cant afford another fresh cycle, this is our one chance, but we could possibly stretch to a frozen cycle in year or so. So we need those frozen embryos. But £1250!!! We hadn't budgeted for!
And all this while I'm supposed to be relaxing and taking it easy, yeah right!

Hi seb

i have just had my transfer and they gave me a pregnancy test. No mention of a blood test.

I don't have any eggs viable to freeze but I do know that if we did, it would cost us around the £1000 mark. In a way I'm glad I don't have to make that decision. It must be heart breaking.

seb. Hospital just gave me pregnancy test (bit like the cheapies off the internet). No bloods at all. They just tell you to call them on the day with the result.

Check the paperwork about the freezing, but I know that mine (and probably most) are outside the contract because not everyone has eggs to freeze.

The number and length of time they are kept affects price. For 2 embryos for one year costs 700 for me. Don't panic though, the clinic would never do anything hasty and without actually informing you. If you've only had the bill anyway, you probably have 30 days before needing to pay. Two options, ask if cost reduced if they only kept them frozen for a year, and secondly you can ask to pay in instalments.

Wowzers Seb ! (I've never used that before but couldn't think of anything more appropriate!). I'm pretty at that bill too! If I may say, it seems like your clinic have been pretty crap in dealing with you in general - first the expensive consultant wants to change dates around last minute while she saunters off on holiday, and now it transpires they haven't been upfront about the freezing costs? Grrr. Very frustrating. And of course they have you over a barrel - you can hardly say "nah, don't worry, we don't need those embryos anyway..." can you?
I'm very annoyed on your behalf. This all should have been discussed up front and made very clear when you spoke about freezing the extra embryos, not now when you're into your 2ww and need to be able to think of other things.

I can't quite compare to our situation, as it's all covered in our national health insurance, including freezing the embies up to 2 or 3 years, but we did talk about the freezing process, and the fact that we would be contacted at various points if we had frosties waiting, to ask if we wanted to keep them, donate them to research, etc.

I wonder if there is a possibility for just paying for 6 month or 1 year freezing for now? You're very unlikely to need freezer space for 5 years - assuming this cycle goes well, I assume you'd want to be trying to a sibling before that? I've had a glimpse at a couple of clinics, and it seems freezing and storage costs are usually included in a "package", but where not, there's the option to pay for freezing and storage per year.

Would it help if you delegated this to your DH? If you're not feeling feisty enough, (and quite frankly, I wouldn't!), maybe he can deal with it and leave you to focus on growing the little embryo inside you? So sorry you're having to deal with this.

On the blood test, it does seem to differ from one place to the next, but my clinic was very clear - ONLY a blood test, instructions NOT to poas, and must wait until the set date (14dp5dt). I have a whole box of pregnancy tests at home from a special offer when we were still TTC the natural way, but have managed to avoid them for now. But here in France there's a strange but easy system where you can go to any lab near you and you'll get the results back in a couple of hours. We live literally next door to a lab, so it's pretty straight forward (actually, come to think of it, can't quite believe I've held out this long, considering!).

Nutty - great news on the ET - two!! That's exciting! We're not allowed to transfer 2, but to be honest the thought of twins was terrifying, so we might not have done it anyway! Welcome to the 2ww - I hope you can have an easier time than me!

rumples I'm not thinking about twins either!! One is enough thanks plus I think my husband may have a heart attack!!!
It just feels that I now have a slightly higher chance of it working (although was told this is only 30%)

Hi All,

I'm on the other IVF thread, but wondered if you might be able to offer me some perspective.

I've just had my first scan after 4 days of stims which shows only 8 follicles . On the plus side, they range from 9mm to 12mm in size and endometrium is good.

I'm seriously thinking about abandoning this cycle, I just can't see us getting anything like the amount of eggs needed to give a good chance of pregnancy from this cycle.

WWYD?

battery
I have low ovarian reserve and only got 5 eggs, all of which fertilised. Just had two put back.
Obviously I can't tell you what to do, but I would carry on.
If it helps a little, the nurse at my clinic said 'normal' people get around 7 or 8 so you are doing well. It's all about the quality and not so much the quantity. Yes, you can read about people getting 20+ eggs but doesn't mean they are all good.
And don't forget the mantra 'it only takes one!!'

seb we are NHS funded for our first attempt and freezing for 1year is included. after 1year they will ask us if we want to keep frozen and charge us, year to year I think. I agree you should ask them why 5 years and reduce to year by year. I'd also tell them you will be having strong words with them about it when you are in a fitter state to do so. that should by you some time to fume at them when you feel up to it. might be easier to write to them.

Quick note to battery - I wouldn't dare telling you what to do I save that for DH but if you read back on the threat you'll see that Seb had a similar conundrum, as it looked like they wouldn't be able to reach one of her ovaries. She went ahead anyway and in fact they did reach both of them, and she retrieved 7 eggs - all fertilised. I had 7 eggs, 6 of which fertilised, and I think Smidge had 7 or 8 with most fertilising. We all made it to ET, some with frosties too. So it sounds like your follicle count at the moment is perfectly reasonable.

Like you though, I was upset at my first scan, as I was expecting closer to 20 eggs (that'll teach me to stay away from crazy internet sites!). Of course, we all wish we could produce over a dozen eggs like Tail , have almost all of the fertilise, leading to a BFP and 4 frosties.... but we're not all superwoman .

Best of luck with your decision.

Battery - personally I would definitely continue (I have tempered my language here after Rumples reminded me it's not my place and it's absolutely you're decision!). Day 4 and you already have 8 follicles between 9 and 12mm?! That's great. My first scan wasn't until day 6 of stimms and I didn't have many over 10mm. But more came and I ended up with 8 eggs. I was told 6-12 eggs is normal, but clearly with all the different reasons for infertility out there, there is a much wider range than that. I think the fact yours are growing nicely in a cluster is a good sign, but really I think you should just take the advice of your fertility clinic, as they are in the best position to know what is good for you.

• Your not you're

Seb my FC do a blood test for pregnancy testing, and aren't interested in the results of any home done peesticks. They want to test HCG level not just positive/negative, and also check on progesterone levels etc to decide whether to continue with the pessaries. Having said that, I'm paying privately (and in Australia - despite what the current posting time might suggest....I've been wide awake now for an hour and a half, since my 3am loo stop)

Re the freezing price, I echo what everyone else is saying. First thing I'd do is check whether they let you pay by year (my clinic does, $800 per year... Not sure if that is per blasto or in total as I only have 1). If not, I would recommend part-paying, then see if they will let you pay the rest in instalments.

So I foolishly caved in, did a poas test, and it was inconclusive !! There's a line but it's much fainter than the control line, and as it's a cheapie multi-pack test, it could really mean anything !! So I think I'm now only 50/50 about whether it's been successful, whereas earlier I was 90/10 against... so on the one hand i'm happier, on the other i'm gonna be even more gutted by a negative result!
On the plus side, it pushed me to dash to the lab before they closed, did the blood test and i'll have a result first thing in the morning !!
So only one sleepless night to go... I'll keep you posted!

Oohhh rumples, don't they say a line, is a line?
It's so exciting!!

a line is a line rumples. did you test with pee held for 4hours? if not the concentration of hcg would be lower. I'd do another in the morning with fmu. but congratulations, today you are pg!